First time out

[prov1900]

Bass fished a small lake in Northeast Nebraska this past weekend. Managed one 10"er but still felt good to stand in a boat and cast shorelines. I could tell the back was out of shape after an extra long winter. Water temps were high 40s. Missed a couple of good fish. Another couple weeks...

[06reata]

Yep, my boat will see a lot of northern NE this year... had an awesome time on L&C last fall.

Haven't been able to get the boat out of storage yet. We are getting ready for my sons graduation party May 18 and the honey do list has me booked up until then....but the rods and tackle have been ready for a couple months now.

This year will be my 23rd trip to Ottertail county...can't wait! Going to be a differnet year with all of the ice still on the lakes. We are going June 1 so hopefully things will start to turn on at that time.

Have some buddies that have been catching some nice bass and catfish south of Lincoln though.

[prov1900]

Gavins Pt is a great body of water and continues to improve every year. I hear you on the goofy weather. 5" or more of snow predicted here tonight after we just had a weekend in the 80s. Fishing walleye opener in Ontario in 17 days...to say I'm a little nervous is an understatement...but the weather forecast looks like we should hit open water by a couple of days. Fingers crossed.

[thatoneguy]

I hope it works out for you in ON. We'll be lucky to have open water in northern MN in 17 days the way things are now.

[06reata]

I'm very interested in Gavins Point and the Niobrara now. I tent camped up there last mid September by myself for three days. Spent the first day messing around above the dam without much luck. I then decided to go below the dam and give it a try and OMG the the game was on. This was my first time fishing there. I'm a born and raised farm pond bass fisherman trying to figure out the walleye so I thought I would give it a try.

Dumped into Gavins and I thought I would just motor up towards the dam, drop my triggerX minnow and let the current take me back down. There were five gates open so current was pretty strong. Pretty sure I had a fish on 90% of the time I did this. The fish would take off going against the current and because I waisted half of my trolling battery from above the dam my trolling motor would just hold me steady, couldn't keep up with the fish so I had to run back, fire up the big motor to keep up with the fish running against the current.

The first few times either my light weight jig hook would straighten out or I would break the line. Finally boated a 25" catfish, dipstick me thought I was hooking walleye's. So I switched up to some heavier gear and then it was game on. I bet I went up and down that area 75 times....it was a blast. I boated a few cat fish in the 15" to 25" range but I'm wondering if I might have hook some paddle fish or some really big cats because I thought I was going to break my rod a number a times. The big fish always broke my line. A buddy at work told be they most likly got down into the rocks and probably cut my line? this was a lot of work being by myself but I couldn't beleive the action. I would get so wore out that I would need to take a break so I would just let the current float me down a half hour or so. Decided to do some casting down by the wood pylons and bam it was smallmouth action for a good stretch. Then I would troll along the north side right up against the rocks and caught a couple small walleye...which I fried that night.

Drove down to Niobrara and wanted to dump in but the wind was so strong and with boat ramp being 30 yrds from the ramp and being by myself I decided not to chance it....that area looks awesome and plan to hit it hard this year. My buddy told me to dump in on the SD side so my truck would be safe???

I am going to adjust my gear and be ready next time.

Anyway, there is awesome fishing 3 1/2 hours from where I live which is great because fishing the mud holes around here isn't much fun anymore..........should just move to MN.

Good luck and tearum up in ON.